TESTING FOR APRAXIA IN NEUROLOGICAL PATIENTS - A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY IN2 DIVERSE CULTURES

We constructed a detailed apraxia testing battery consisting of 55 ite ms arranged in seven subparts and applied it to a convenience series o f patients with a variety of neurological diseases and asymptomatic co ntrol subjects. A total of 173 subjects were evaluated in two cultural ly diverse settings: Rochester, MN, USA and in Istanbul, Turkey. There was little difference between performance scores in the two sites. Th e test could be completed within a reasonable time (5-10 min) in cases and in controls in both sites. Patients with Parkinson's disease perf ormed just as well as controls but patients with Alzheimer's disease o r other neurodegenerative disorders did less well than control subject s. (C) 1998 Rapid Science Ltd.